Compiled by Eva Jovanova and Hristo Voynov
1. Kosovo slips further in diplomatic tensions. After last week’s announcement by the Serb minority party in Kosovo that it would leave the government coalition due to the arrest and deportation of Marko Djuric, the head of the office for Kosovo, Kosovo is now being berated by the EU. As news has spread that six Turkish nationals who were legally residing in Kosovo have been secretly deported to Turkey, the EU berated Kosovo for breaching the rule of law and international extradition rules. Kosovo Prime Minister, Ramush Haradinaj, fired the Interior Minister for allegedly keeping him in the dark for the deportations of the Turkish nationals.
2. The Hungary elections are days away as the many parties involved are working hard to win over last-minute voters. Viktor Orban continues to use his anti-Soros message, stating that Hungary is at risk of an “internationalist government established by George Soros” while Jobbik, the right-wing party expected to receive the highest share within the opposition, is focusing its messages on anti-corruption and anti-immigration. It is expected that FIDESZ, the ruling party, will win a solid majority of roughly just over 50% of the votes. One group to watch is the diaspora voters, who are seen as largely committed to president Viktor Orban due to his efforts to utilize the government to keep them involved in Hungarian politics.
3. After Albania’s government introduced a pay toll on the highway to Kosovo this Saturday, protesters shook the country’s government. Around two dozen people were arrested on Sunday, but the protests continued. The protests gained the support of the opposition Democratic Party, which called for Edi Rama’s resignation. The pay tolls include a charge between €2,5 and €22 for using the main road and are a result of a 30-year concession by Rama’s government to manage and repair the highway. The overall cost is estimated at €1.5 billion euros.
4. The international response to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal continues, as Russia issues its response to the mass expulsion of Russian diplomats from a multitude of countries. Russia’s response is in mind, expelling diplomats from Italy, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands and Norway. It will also close a US consulate in Saint Petersburg and expel 60 diplomats. One issue with this is that those expelled now (from any side) may be later replaced to maintain the number of foreign representatives in line with how many are allowed to be in each country as per the bilateral treaties. In the meantime, Russia has called for a meeting with the UN security council regarding the issue to find a common solution.
5. Bulgaria, and especially Kosovo, might have a reason to worry as the EU-Balkan Summit approaches. Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zakharieva stated that only one of the five EU members that have not recognized Kosovo has not confirmed their attendance at the summit. Namely, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy still hasn’t responded to Bulgaria’s invitation for the summit this May between all EU members and the six Balkan countries with a potential future in the EU. Besides Spain, other EU countries which have not recognized Kosovo as an independent state are Romania, Cyprus, Slovakia and Greece. Solving the issues between Kosovo and Serbia is crucial for a potential EU future for Kosovo and plays a great role in establishing regional stability in the Balkans.
6. The long legal battle over where the Russian hacker Yevgenyi Nikulin will be extradited to has finally come to an end, as he has been sent to the US. Nikulin was arrested nearly two years ago and both the US and Russia have been working hard to convince the Czech government to their respective justice system since then, most notably by the US sending over Paul Ryan to appeal to the Czechian government. The US accused him of hacking social media networks, unconnected to the accusations election meddling, while Russia claims he is responsible for small online thefts within Russian jurisdiction. The Russian foreign ministry was not pleased about this decision, as it has previously reported that the US is ‘hunting’ Russian citizens.
7. In Serbia the long and probably tiring process of jailing returnee fighters from Iraq and Syria. The Higher Court in Belgrade sentenced seven Serbian nationals for terrorist acts and cooperation with jihadi groups from Iraq and Syria this Wednesday. Two more people were tried in absentia on grounds that they had established links with ISIL and Front Al-Nusra, and had collected funds for these organizations from like-minded Serbians.
8. Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party, is continuing the foreign policy that has proven to be troublesome for the country’s foreign relations. While he continued the reconciliatory rhetoric over the EU’s Article 7, he is also returning to the idea of compensation for WWII and Communist-era crimes. In an unrelated incident, an April 2nd protest in front of the Polish embassy in Kiev saw Ukrainian nationalists burning a Polish flag, likely connected to the tensions between the two that were caused by a recent Polish law passed that outlawed denying the ethnic cleansing of Poles in Volhynia by Ukrainian nationalists. While the ruling party’s nationalist base is supportive of the laws passed to ensure the remembrance of Poland’s history, those outside the country do not appear happy with how Poland is politicizing the past to fit today’s events.
9. Montenegrins are organizing a massive protest this Sunday against the recent violence and criminal activities. A few car bomb explosions in the previous week and the growing number of crimes committed by organized criminal groups were a reason to mobilize the population of Montenegro’s capital, Podgorica, and organize this protest. After seven car bombs exploded last month, the police administration chief and other senior police and security officers were prompted to resign their posts.
10. As corruption is one of the main problems affecting Ukrainian society, improving the situation has proven to be a difficult task. This week features bad news in this regard, as there appears to be a power struggle within the anti-corruption movement in the country. While Artem Sytnyk, the Director of the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has denied this, the facts tell a different story. NABU has brought charges against the Nazar Kholodnytsky, the chief of the Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), though the exact charges are uncertain. NABU is in charge of investigating corruption, while SAPO assists in prosecution and supervision of these efforts, and so the two agencies going against one another is an unusual development.
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